View full sizeRoss William Hamilton/The OregonianParole Board members Darcey Baker (left) and Candace Wheeler at a hearing in 2008. The Parole Board has taken issue with a state Supreme Court ruling that could lead to the early release of 30 killers.

Thirty killers in Oregon, including some of the state’s most notorious, could
get out of prison up to a decade early following a court ruling that
rehabilitation trumps mandated prison terms.

The convicts are serving life
terms with minimum 30-year sentences for aggravated murder, including some
double homicides.

The state Supreme Court ruled recently that once the Parole
Board finds an inmate fit for rehabilitation, it must move to release the
prisoner regardless of the sentence imposed by a judge.

The state Parole
Board has already concluded the 30 killers can be reformed. Based on the Supreme
Court ruling, parole authorities will start hearings in July that could lead to
freedom. At such hearings, a possible release date could be set, but inmates
then face one more step -– an exit interview hearing –- before they are cleared to
leave prison.

Victims’ families and prosecutors have been reacting with shock, parole board officials said.

One of the 30 killers is Kevin A. Roper, who was 19 when he pleaded
guilty to a charge of aggravated murder in the 1987 death of Eddie L.
Gibbs, 20, in exchange for a life sentence.

Roper, of Southeast Portland, told police he hit Gibbs in the
head with a hatchet after he and another man robbed Gibbs. The men then
tied Gibbs to a pole at a Southeast Portland drive-in
theater and left him to die.

The Parole Board statement
explained that under Oregon law, the board must conduct a hearing for an inmate
who has served 20 years of a life sentence. The hearing determines whether an inmate
is “capable of rehabilitation within a reasonable period of time.”

The board
said that even when it has found rehabilitation possible, it hasn’t considered
releasing murderers until they have served the minimum 30-year sentence.

“The
Supreme Court did not order any prisoner to be released,” the board said in its
statement. “However, the court has allowed certain prisoners, convicted of
aggravated murder, to be considered for release into the community soon than
many – including the board – anticipated.”